Upgrade Wavestation to EX?

[bjoerngiesler]

Hi guys,

I've recently "rediscovered" my Wavestation after it has been collecting dust for a while. Its front panel buttons were not very responsive any more so I replaced all of them and put in a new backlight.

I have the original WS-1 without the EX extension. So now I'm thinking of making it into an EX, if only to not carry around the Piano card set. I guess it's crazy to hope to find an extension kit anywhere nowadays.

But I've not even found any documentation about this upgrade on the net that would describe what it's made up of. It can't have been that big of a kit / too hard to install since it was sold as a DIY extension. If it only consists of a couple of (EP)ROM chips, it shouldn't be too hard to read them with an EPROM programmer and to copy them. Did anyone here do this upgrade (way back when) and can tell me how this worked?

Or even better: Would anyone here (preferredly in Germany ) be willing to let me have a couple of hours with his/her WS EX, on a basis of "crate-of-beer, I'll-repair-your-panel-buttons-and-backlight-too"? Of course I would put the results (ROM images, upgrade instructions) online later if KORG permits.

Thanks a lot & regards,
Björn

[davidtrainman2]

Hi, on the off chance 2 years after you posted, you are looking for a reply, I unfortunately can't help, plus, the beer would need to come a long way! That being said, I have a slightly different challenge, in so far, as I have an old WS1 and am just wanting to know how to get a piano sound and an organ sound onto itjavascript:emoticon('8)')

[jhulk]

i have 4 ex wavestation kits

[davidtrainman2]

Hi Jhulk, thanks for the offer of an EX kit. I am a novice so some questions. I take it I can use an ex kit on my WS1 and upgrade it somehow? Are the kits easy to use? Cost? David

[telmnstr]

The upgrade appears to be a chip swap of ERPOMs/PROMs. So it's just software.

[jhulk]

yes and no it is a chip upgrade but there is some soldering involved

there are 4 empty rom slots these need to have sockets soldered in

then there is a os eprom chip and 4 4001 eprom sound rom chips

and yes it fits any ws1

the ws1 ex already have them and so does the ad and sr

it gives you the full 500 multisound rom and so you can use the full sysex banks from all the wavestations apart from pcm card banks

[davidtrainman2]

thanks for reply. will consider. I did 'farmer' soldering on my model train, but I suspect I'll need to get someone else to do it

[jhulk]

its a quick job as you just fit the sockets and solder but would get some one who nows how to solder as you will need to remove the main board to do the work

[wknick]

i have 4 ex wavestation kits

[jhulk]

i have 3 left a member brought one recently

[Mellontikos]

jhulk, are your ROM kits simply to upgrade a WS to the EX status? or do they do anything extra? And how much are you asking for them? (I didn't see an ad in the Buy and Sell)

[jhulk]

they are the upgrade kit that korg used to sell for £300+

it has 2 os eproms
4 sound eproms
4 gold sockets

you solder in the 4 sockets

you place the 4 sound roms into there numbered socket space and

fit the 2 eproms in the numbered socket spaces you initialise the synth the new os starts and you have access to the new sound rom available to ex ad and sr synths which means you can load all the sysex available

the flashed eproms are £12.50 each

there are 2 sorts the sound roms are 4001 the osroms are different eproms

i did the full kit for £80 including the 4 gold plate phosphorus bronze 32 pin turned sockets

plus postage

[acbarawed]

can somebody lend me a spare for the 2 eprom and 4 sound eprom for the wavestation so that i could upgrade my syn. I can buy they for 50 dollars plus the shiiping cost because I live here in canada. I just want to make use to my old syn.

Albet

[Mellontikos]

Hello jhulk.

Kind of a late reply, but if I understand your post correctly, you are asking for 80 Euro for the full kit with the 2 ROM's, the 4 sound ROM's and 4 sockets to solder into the board. Is this correct?

[acbarawed]

Yes: I am asking for the two rom and 4 socket plus the 4 eprom. Let me know how much for all of them. I can do all the soldering. And How much will it cost for me to send it here in Canada.

Thanks
Albert